Tricky Cutting-Board Glue-Up
A clever cutting board provides lessons about gluing end grain. October 20, 2005
Question
How would you approach gluing up this item? It appears that they glued the end grain together. Will that hold up for a cutting board abuse, or is there a trick to how they mate these together?
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Forum Responses
(Finishing Forum)
From contributor A:
I'd build the three sections then join them together with loose tenons. If you don't have a way of making accurate mortises, then you could use two rows of biscuits or two blind splines. I wouldn't count on gluing the end-grains together.
From contributor B:
The board is glued up into one section, cross cut twice, a segment is flipped, then reassembled. Use what you like for the parallel grain laminations, then use top grade epoxy for the end grain. Add blind splines if you like. I have a lot of test pieces that are merely end grain to end grain, sitting out in the rain trough, growing algae and rotting, with the glue joint still intact. Experiment first with the epoxy end to end, realizing that it likes to soak into end grain.
From the original questioner:
After looking at the picture for awhile I realized that it was cut after being glued up, but I had already posted the question. But I was still concerned about end grain issue. Thanks for glue advice, I'll give it a shot and see how it comes out.
